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COLLECTION
LAWS – A DISASTER!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
March 14, 2014
Make
no mistake, the so-called "Safe Harbor"
provisions in collection laws created by the
Florida
legislature to protect the banks from the liability of paying
for past dues of foreclosed upon units has cost more families
their homes than hurricanes “Charlie” and “Wilma”
together.
Restricting
the liability of banks to the lesser amount of “One
percent of the original mortgage debt” or “unpaid common expenses that accrued or came due during the past 12 months”
forced many associations to raise their monthly dues (and/or
levy special assessments), assessments some still paying owners
just couldn’t afford any longer, seeing their homes/units
going into foreclosure and losing their homes. Not everybody can
afford to pay his neighbor’s TV and water bill – and more!
And while the banks were reimbursed from our tax money for their
losses caused by their reckless lending policies, homeowners and
condo owners lost their homes because of the recklessness and
greed of banks and mortgage companies.
Owners
should never forget that legislators like Senator Jeremy Ring
caused all these serious financial problems. Without his bill S
1986, sponsored by him in 2008, homeowners’
associations wouldn’t even be burdened with "Safe
Harbor" provisions. And that guy even considered running
for the office of Chief Financial Officer. How much more
financial damage does he intend to inflict on
Florida's citizens?
We
are this year seeing some bills trying to increase the limits of
the
Safe
Harbor
provisions. Representative Carlos Trujillo filed H 871,
a bill – if enacted – would increase the limits to 24 months
or 2% of the original mortgage.
But,
will his colleagues go along, considering all the campaign funds
banks are throwing around – money they received from our
government, courtesy of our tax dollars?
Where
I come from the people causing the damages are paying for the
damage they caused. In this case it should be banks and mortgage
companies who are paying for it – not innocent homeowners and
condo owners who had nothing to do with creating this mess!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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